a constant chiaroscuro

historical fiction

It is Wednesday, and on this Wednesday I am going to take the theme of a book that inspired me as a writer and twist it a little bit. Today I am going to talk about a book that didn’t exactly inspire me, but it definitely made me think as an author!

The book–or series, rather–that I am going to discuss is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. My unpopular opinion: it wasn’t that great. However, I did (eventually) feel compelled to read all 8 books that the series has so far. And it did inspire me to write an entire blog post on the series, so there is something to be said. Let’s dive into it.

First of all, I picked the first novel in the series up at an airport (on my way to the Vegas writing conference), and I nearly ditched it in the plane when I landed. The writing was slow and wordy, the plot didn’t catch me right away, for the first time in my life I was about to abandon a book! But I didn’t. However, it took me a long time to get through the first book for reasons I already named added to the fact that I found the story line implausible. Maybe this is my cynical side taking over, but who would stay in the 18th century over the 20th century simply for love? This isn’t very generous to more romantic sensibilities, but throughout the entire series I found this to be a hard hurdle to get past. If it were me, I don’t think I would give up present day safety and technology advances.

Secondly, the books made me angry and frustrated on my journey as a writer. Here I am all year desperately trying to get published while reading these books that have been wildly successful. Should have been an inspiration, right? It was not. While I got back letters from agents admonishing my use of adverbs and exposition, Gabaldon’s prose mocked me with its casual use of verb modifiers and excessive description of her characters’ hair color. Most pointedly in contrast–her characters used elevated language and highly eloquent word choice, while Capacitance was being criticized for characters “not talking like actual people.”

Essentially, it seemed that Gabaldon does not follow the so-called “rules” that are supposed to apply to aspiring authors. While I admire her intelligence and obviously vast knowledge of the historical periods about which she writes, I found her characters and her choices for the plot a little hard to swallow and, at times, to stay awake for (over 100 pages dedicated to the events of one day, hmm..).

Now to give Gabaldon credit, which I must do! I did read every one of the books, and I will read the subsequent books when they come out (I believe there are supposed to be 2 more). This speaks to her as an author because she has created a compelling story line (even though the plausibility doesn’t sit right with me at times). I want to know what happens to these characters and I will slog through the slow parts just to finally see what happens. At the end of the day, Gabaldon is a successful author and businesswoman because of this–she has created a marketable product and essentially has free range to “break the rules” and write however she wants, and isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Today I am actually in the office and on track with my blog to spotlight an inspirational/thought-provoking work of fiction or book I have read! Finally…first one in a long time! Usually, I glance over at my bookshelf for some inspiration and today my eyes fell on the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. It is fitting to write about her as she passed away earlier this year, and I could and definitely will have more to say on her other works, but for now I want to stick to my personal favorites–her historical fiction seven book series fictionalizing ancient Rome from the time of Gaius Marius to Caesar Augustus.

First of all, it is important to mention that McCullough was an incredibly brilliant woman–she was a neurophysiological researcher at Yale who just happened to write beautiful novels in her spare time. Thus, the research and brains behind the undertaking of the fictionalization of such a huge chunk of history were formidable.

It is clear that McCullough immersed herself in her subject. Not only are most of her facts historically accurate, but it was apparent she tried to interpret the character of the individuals through their actions left on the historical record. To great effect, in my opinion. It is surely difficult to convey a character that was a real living person and do that character justice despite the lack of written records, but McCullough does brilliantly. Through seven books following major historical characters, you find yourself as a reader coming to know these people well and caring about them intimately. This speaks for McCullough’s strength as a character creator in general.

While you are becoming immersed in the characters, you are learning history. This is the greatest achievement of historical fiction and why it can be so valuable to write it well and accessibly for the public. And why readers should give historical fiction a try. It’s a chance to broaden your knowledge and be entertained at the same time. McCullough puts forth a great effort to be accurate; each book is followed by a note explaining any deviations from the true path of history (she incorporates some historical rumors into fact for her stories), and why she chose to believe these rumors to be true. Usually her justifications make sense and show a lot of research behind them. She was an author who took her writing seriously.

After reading the series, I was so taken by the history of ancient Rome that I wanted to research it on my own and test McCullough’s factual reliability. I read biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Caesar Augustus. I found myself getting bored while reading said biographies because I already knew all the material–McCullough had really stuck to the facts and portrayed them, while in an entertaining manner, in incredible detail!

In conclusion, historical fiction would be an interesting challenge as an author. Colleen McCullough has definitely inspired me in this regard because her books are both highly informative and very well written. I love history and research and it would be very rewarding to discover and bring back to life historical figures from the past as McCullough has done in her Masters of Rome series.